A thought about purchase rating?

[canywriter]

I always found my comfort factor was higher in writing for a public request where the customer's purchase rating was more than zero - kind of confirms intent to buy. Obviously, if a customer is new, purchase rating will be zero, and we need to test the waters. My point is this - are there customers who make a public request, do not buy, go away, and come back again with another request? I guess it might happen once in a while if the customer doesn't find what they are looking for - but it happens several times with a customer, is there a way we can know? Since there is a loop hole open for misuse there?

I guess what I mean is - is there a way where we can know if this is a "first time zero" or a second or third time requestor with a zero purchase rating?

Any thoughts?

[Debbi]

Do you mean something like 0 of 1 requests? Once they buy an article it would go to 1 of 1? Or if they never bought anything, it might be 0 of 24 requests. That would be interesting to know but I'm not sure of the logistics. The requester could make a single request and then buy 5 articles, so it would say 5 of 1. Then what happens if he buys 5 articles with no request but sometimes makes requests?

It would be good info to have though. I've submitted a couple of articles to requesters that never bought anyone's article (though there were a bunch of good ones written in response). I always wonder what that means when it happens. Did they find something somehwere else? Write it themselves? Run out fo money? Steal the submissions? It's not always 0 PRs that that happens with but probably more often than not.

[canywriter]

I was thinking only of customers with zero pr. For instance - purchase rating zero ( request no 1) - would tell me that this was a new customer making his or her first request. For the kind of requestor you mention, then the data would be - purchase rating zero ( request no 24) - which would indicate that the customer was repeatedly making requests but had not made a purchase, for whatever reason. The request data would kick in only for zero pr. Could simply read - purchase rating 0 (24).

Not sure about the feasibility or logistics, but might be useful information.

Just went back and read your post - and yes, it would be: pr - 0 of 1, 0 of 24...

Cany

[Lysis]

I like this idea. I recognized one guy with a PR of 0 throw out another request later on this month. My trust factor is a little low with the PR 0's but I also factor in the content they are asking for. As a former Elance slave and a contributor on google's webmaster forums, I know what markets the shysters are in.

[Celeste Stewart]

I don't really think it's necessary. If you read the descriptions, you'll get a sense of whether the client is serious or not. Look at the Lasik request as compared to the SEO request. Both have 0s for their purchase rating. I'd write for the Lasik customer without hesitation but I'd be less incliend to write for the SEO customer just based on the way they worded their requests. Also, the date gives you a clue too. The Lasik request is brand new. Now, if it were three weeks old and still showed a zero, I'd figure the customer's not serious, but since it's a weekend and the request is just a day or two old, then I'd give him the benefit of the doubt (providing of course that I was interested in writing about that particular topic). That said, SEO articles are fairly popular, so if I were so inclined, I'd write one and submit it to the SEO guy. I wouldn't be confident in this guy buying it but I would be confident in some other client buying it based on the popularity of the topic. So really, if this guy has made 100 requests and never bought a single article, my overall decision would be based on the topic's wider appeal.

Consider also that newbie customers may be posting their calls for content on multiple freelance sites. Look at the description for clues that it's not a CC exclusive request. This is tricky, but you get a sense of CC-specific requests versus more generic requests. If it sounds like a canned request that's likely put here, there, and everywhere, then CC has a chance to shine! We don't have to sell ourselves - just write the article. It's risky because we're competing with other sites, but if the topic appeals to you, you think it can sell to someone else later, then this is a good chance to help CC land a new customer. The CC model has impressed many weary webmasters before and will continue to do so but it's up to us writers to do our part. It may take a customer like this 5, 10, or 20 requests to see the value of CC's model over bid sites.

While the purchase rating number is a good indicator of a client's history with CC it's not perfect. I've had a couple of clients that worked in teams. The one making the request wasn't the one buying the articles but the two worked for the same company. So, the requester had a zero but really, he was involved in purchasing hundreds of articles. This has happened to me at least two or three times that I can remember. It doesn't happen often, but it has happened.

The only way to really get a grasp on who's serious and who's not is to watch both the requested content and recently sold lists. Even then, there's never a guarantee so write for requests that interest you.

[Celeste Stewart]

Also, re: the request for "orders." Even though the customer only has five sales, if you've been watching the recently sold list and the search terms, you'd know that this customer had searched the site for ribbons, hair ties, barretts, etc, and apparently found a few articles that meet his needs. Now, there's a new request for tons of content for these same items. So, even with a low Purchase Rating, this request is "hot" in my opinion. But again, I only know that from paying attention to what's been selling and what search terms have been entered lately. It's an educated hunch so to speak.

[Lysis]

Wasn't it the SEO guy who wanted 1000 words for $10/$20? LOL Someone did. The guy who is looking for email marketing (jaseba?) bought one of my articles so I'm pretty sure he's serious. He just isn't in my price range for the request. Most of them aren't, but I still try to keep my eyes open.

[Debbi]

Does anyone ever write to the customer when they offer $10/20 for 1000 words to see if that's really what they meant? Maybe they just left the default price range.

[Celeste Stewart]

I've done that many times, Debbi. Because $10-$20 is the default range, I tend to assume it's an oversight unless the customer specifies otherwise in the text of the description. I have often made the sale with the higher, more realistic price. I try to be reasonable, of course but yeah, I take the opening default price range with a grain of salt. I really wish CC would change the default and make the customer choose a price range instead of having a cheap price pre-selected for them.

[canywriter]

Celeste,

I understand the value of everything you have said - keeping an aye on requests and recently sold content, searched items and correlation with sales, purchase rating going up when they pick up an article - and do it most of the time. I also realise that we need to give new customers a more than fair and patient trial - that's where our sales come from! And that we need to write on spec to get clients to come to prefer cc over other sites. All that granted.

What I was trying to put across was this - if there were a private requestor who came up with say five requests for which you wrote, and didnt buy or even read the articles, would anybody write for a 6th request? I don't think I would. Now, because this was a private request, the data would be available - that he did make five requests, didn't purchase, and is now making another request. Transfer this to the public request domain. While it may be possible to keep track of individual customer names - say, over a year, it is difficult unless one records of all requests - and related purchases. I guess cc has these records, and hence the suggestion.

The thought behind this was to check if there was any way we know the history of a repeated, zero purchase requestor was, so we could then take a call - depending on other factors like how serious the request sounds, whether the topic is a hot one, etc.

The intention is not to send well-meaning new customers away without articles, but rather to be able to make a slightly more informed choice? Interesting point you brought up there.

Cany

[BarryDavidson]

Does anyone ever write to the customer when they offer $10/20 for 1000 words to see if that's really what they meant? Maybe they just left the default price range.

I've written for plenty of requests like that - I've just priced the articles higher. As with many writers on this site, my time is worth a lot (at least to me). If it took me ten minutes to write that thousand word article, I'd still charge more than twenty dollars. Not that I've written many lengthy articles in ten minutes lately, but you get the point. One warning though... Don't ask the customer if they're serious about the price offer. If it's a subject you know or love, go ahead and write the article. If that customer doesn't buy it at the higher price you've set, it'll probably sell to another customer later. The only exception to this might be movie reviews. I haven't seen many requests for movie reviews though.

[Celeste Stewart]

Cany,
A few months back, a "private" request came in from a guy with a 0 PR. From the text of the request, it was obvious to me that he most likely wasn't serious/didn't understand the CC model - and discussions in the forums confirmed that other writers also recieved the same "private" request. I asked the customer a question to clarify the request and he never responded so guess what, I didn't write it. Another public requester with a 0 PR contacted me privately and asked me to work on a separate private request as well as those additional public ones. Our correspondence led me to believe he was serious, and indeed he was. Two 0 PR requesters but it was obvious to me which one meant business and which one didn't.

I don't know if CC will ever implement a PR __ of __, but if you use your good sense of judgment, you'll be less likely to be burned. And no, I would not continue writing private requests for someone who never buys them.

[Amy W]

I'd be interested to hear CC's take on this. I know the site bans writers who break the rules, but what about customers? If a customer requests 50 articles through public requests, but never buys a single one, is he banned from using the site?

[Celeste Stewart]

Customers don't have much, if anything, at stake so banning them for not buying content from the site would accomplish what? The non-buying customers are already not buying so they're banned from buying? They have a choice to buy or not to buy as do all of us as consumers. I doubt a customer would ever be banned for not making a purchase at Constant-Content. For one, that's a terrible business practice for any company in the business of selling products or services! Plus, there's no rule against submitting a Constant-Content request and never buying. In fact, there's no obligation on the customer's part to ever buy anything here. That's one of CC's major selling points to the webmaster community as far as I understand it.

I seriously doubt many customers would keep returning and requesting articles if they never found anything to their satisfaction. We're all the shoppers, too, aren't we? We go to a store, check out the merchandise, and if something strikes our fancy, we *might* buy it. If the store shows promise, we'll return and see if anything else interests us in the future. On the other hand, if the store is filled with crap or overpriced items or simply doesn't appeal to our personal tastes for whatever reasons, we'd be wasting our time to come back. Sure, we might give the shop a second chance, maybe a third, but if every experience is not to our liking, then we'll spend our time at other marketplaces better suited for our needs and tastes. Granted, most stores don't ask customers to request specific products per se, but I think the analogy is similar enough to consider that banning (or penalizing through an additional rating number) a customer for not buying an article doesn't make much sense.

Maybe I'm missing something but I'm not sure that this issue even exists, and if it does exist, I'm not sure it's anywhere close to being anything more than an occasional annoyance.

I would hope that if a customer requested a boatload of articles and never purchased a single one that CC's sales team would approach the customer and ask for feedback, not ban the customer. Knowing the CC team, I suspect that they do just that.

[Celeste Stewart]

PS - I don't mean to sound so feisty on this but it just doesn't make much sense to me. It's just my opinion.